Microsoft has been said to be working on smaller versions of its Surface tablets, and more information backing that up has come from The Verge. The publication says that Microsoft has been testing 7.5-inch displays for a potential Surface Mini tablet, lending credence to reports from display analysts alluding to the same screen size.
The tablet may not have a 16:9 aspect ratio either. CNET believes that the aspect ratio will be 4:3, just like the iPad and iPad mini. An update to Microsoft’s developer tools for Windows 8.1 hinted at a possible resolution of 1440×1080 earlier this year too.
The Surface Mini won’t be released until 2014, though. ZDNet claims that Microsoft will try and release the tablet at the same time as a Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 update sometime in the Spring. The tablet will reportedly be running Windows RT, however, along with an ARM processor. That’s a shame given that Intel’s newest Atom chips are more than good enough to run full Windows 8.1, but ZDNet’s report says that Microsoft prefers the price and battery benefits of ARM.
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